April 25, 2010

Genesis 9:8-17; Isaiah 54:1-10

 

This morning we are starting a new sermon series titled – “Following Jesus in a culture of fear and violence.”

 

During this series we want to look at what it means to give our allegiance to the Prince of Peace in a culture that insists some form of violence is necessary for good to prevail over evil.

 

Many Christians would say – “loving your enemy is a nice thing to do” but at the end of the day – most Christians think that the power of the fist or the gun or the bomb is the only realistic way to stop evil and overcome violence.

 

After the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center buildings there was a political cartoon with a picture of the New York City skyline and the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center buildings.

 

In the foreground of the picture was an ostrich with its head buried in the sand. The caption on the ostrich said – “the anti-war movement”.

 

The message of the cartoon was clear – pacifists are simply out of touch with reality.

 

The common understanding is that as long as there are crazy people running loose in the world – anyone who rejects the use of violence or challenges the logic of war is politically naïve and morally irresponsible.

 

By and large, a majority of Christians have bought into this mindset.

 

As you can probably imagine, I want to offer a different perspective in these sermons. I want to suggest that something has gone terribly wrong in our understanding of Jesus and the Christian life that has led us to this point.

 

Something is terribly wrong with our Christian understandings when the Tutsi and Hutu people in Rwanda, both groups primarily Christian, can mutilate each other with machetes.

 

Something is terribly wrong with our Christian understandings when Bosnian Serbs, mostly Orthodox Christians, can brutally murder thousands and thousands of Croatian Muslims.

 

Something is terribly wrong with our Christian understandings when the United States, where about 90% of our people proclaim Christian beliefs, spend about 50% of our tax dollars on instruments of war and fighting wars. Where our military budget is bigger than the combined military budgets of the next 25 countries.

 

Something is terribly wrong with our Christian understandings when Christians continue to have high rates of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse in our homes.

 

And as Mennonites, while we have wonderful statements about peace, we also have not always practiced what we preach.

• Some of our young people go off to war.
• We give in at times to nationalistic sentiments and patriotic fervor by flying the American flag in our churches or playing the national anthem in our Mennonite colleges.
• We have had our share of domestic violence and sexual abuse cases.
• Our words can be as harsh and deadly towards others as anyone else.
• And we might be strongly anti-war, but many times we don’t know how to get along peacefully with the people in our own home or church community.

 

So the struggle of following Jesus in a culture of fear and violence is not just an issue way out there somewhere for other people to deal with – it is our struggle as well.

 

So, over the next few weeks I invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to teach you about what it means to have God’s peace in your life and to be a peacemaker in our world.

 

For many of you, what I have to say may be things you have heard many times in church. I simply invite you to listen to the basics again and see what new things God might be saying to you.

 

For others of you, what I have to say may sound very strange to your ears. I invite you to listen and to ask God to show you the kernels of truth that may be there. I invite you to share with me your questions, thoughts, ideas, and also your different understandings.

 

And if there are things you want me to talk about in this series of sermons – let me know and I will try to address them over the next few weeks.

This morning I want to focus primarily on the big picture of peace in the OT. We are going to cover the whole OT story in about 15 minutes.

 

Now, for many of you – you may wonder why I am starting with the OT if I want to talk about peace. For you, the OT is full of violence and war. God seems angry, vengeful, and judgmental. And the OT – well, is old – and therefore irrelevant to our modern world.

 

The problem with this view is that the OT is the only bible Jesus read and knew. For Jesus, the OT is the bible he used to explain to his disciples on the road to Emmaus that he was the Prince of Peace.

 

Jesus also said that he did not come to do away with the Law and the Prophets – the OT scriptures – but to fulfill them and to make them clear.

 

It is certainly true that the NT gives us a unique perspective on interpreting the OT and for weighing what is most important there. At the same time, the OT helps us understand the NT and is foundational for our theology of peace.

 

I want to suggest this morning that the OT can be a rich resource for peacemakers. We will talk next week about all the violence in the OT, but for today I want us to understand the OT vision of “shalom”.

 

The Hebrew word for peace in the OT is “shalom”. It occurs over 250 times. Shalom is a positive concept. Shalom is God’s vision of how the world is meant to be.

 

Shalom refers to – wholeness, reconciliation, justice, well-being, compassion, love, freedom, and salvation.

Shalom is not just saying “no” to warfare or violence – it is saying “yes” to all the many positive things to be for, to work for, and to build.

 

We find shalom, first of all, in the creation story. The story of creation in Genesis one is really a work of God the “shalom creator or peace-maker”.

 

The story of creation in Genesis stands in sharp contrast to the other Ancient Near Eastern stories of creation. In other stories of creation rival gods battle it out with the one with the most brute force winning.

 

The result of this violent view of creation is that human beings then lived in constant fear of the gods.

 

Genesis, on the other hand, has God fashioning creation out of chaos and making peace out of disorder. There is no violent struggle for power. The Judeo-Christian God is a “shalom maker” and creation is a peaceable act.

 

And, then, after creating a “very good and peaceful world” God created human beings in the very image of God.

 

Adam and Eve, made in God’s image, were created for the purpose of friendship and fellowship with God. They were also designed to live with each other in complete intimacy and trust and they both were to share responsibility in caring for creation.

 

The creation story describes God’s intention for the world. It is a picture of shalom – wholeness, justice, harmony, goodness, love, and freedom. This is how we were meant to live. We were created to live in shalom.

 

So the story of creation in Genesis establishes the baseline for how we then view “sin” that enters the picture next.

 

Genesis three describes how our hunger for shalom – our desire for communion with God and with one another – is poisoned by sin.

 

Adam and Eve give in to the temptation to be like God. This yielding to temptation has many consequences.

• Adam and Eve are now afraid of God.
• They feel shame at their nakedness.
• They blame each other.
• There is now a hierarchy between the man and the woman – with him ruling over her.
• There is now a struggle with thistles and weeds as they plant and care for the earth.

 

At the same time, though, that we see shalom distorted by sin – we also see God express mercy for the first time. Adam and Eve are not killed as God had said they would be if they ate from the tree of the life. God allows them to live. God continues to seek a relationship with them.

 

But then in the next biblical story we see shalom shattered again by the first act of violence. Adam and Eve’s son, Cain, kills his brother Abel.

 

We go from eating fruit to murder in one generation. Driven by pride and jealousy Cain kills Abel and is forced into exile as an eternal wanderer.

 

But once again God remains committed to the relationship. God shows mercy by allowing Cain to live and by putting a mark on him so he would not be killed.

However, soon after Abel’s death, societal violence escalates as Cain’s cousin Lamech says things are eleven times worse than before Cain killed Abel. We now see unlimited retaliation – instead of an eye for an eye.

 

So, by Genesis chapter six – the violence has escalated so much that God is in great pain over the alienation and brokenness of humanity.

 

Genesis 6:5 describes it this way – “the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said – I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created.”

 

Now, what is interesting here is that God’s first response to all the violence is not anger or disgust or hatred. God’s first response is grief. God is hurt. God feels pain because God feels abandoned and betrayed.

 

And out of this deep grief comes the flood. The good creation is now being – uncreated. The flood almost wipes everything out.

 

Yet, in the midst of the flood we discover that God remains committed to creation. God tells Noah after the flood – “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind.”

 

God’s judgment through the flood does not change our human hearts. What changes from the experience of the flood is that God changes.

 

After the flood, God decides that the only way to heal creation is through persevering love.

 

Even though creation is broken and people continue to sin – God decides that creation is worth redeeming and God makes a long-term commitment to heal and restore creation through patient, sacrificial love.

 

God’s healing strategy here is to find another way to deal with God’s grief. God’s strategy is now to extend mercy that never ends. God’s response to the brokenness of creation is now based on loving persuasion – not on brute force.

 

A big part of God’s strategy to heal creation after the flood is to establish a community of people who will know God and who will share God’s love with the rest of the world.

 

In Genesis 12 God tells Abraham and Sarah – “I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you so that you can be a blessing to others.”

 

God calls into being a community of faith for the purpose of “blessing all the families of the earth.” God’s strategy for healing creation is to form a people who know God’s mercy and shalom and who will extend that same mercy and shalom to the wider world.

 

The next big story in the OT is the story of the children of Israel as slaves in Egypt. In the bible, Egypt stands for what happens when sin becomes structured and embedded in society. In Egypt power is used to preserve privilege and to oppress others.

 

But God hears the cry of those who are oppressed and does something about it. For the children of Israel, the “Exodus” from Egypt is their primary story.

 

More even than the story of creation – the story of God delivering the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt – is part of God’s healing strategy.

 

This story – the story of the Exodus – is at the heart of Israel’s faith. This is the story they reenact every year in the Passover meal. This story says – God delivered us, God loved us, and God brought us salvation.

 

Israel is freed from Egypt, not by having more horses or chariots, but by trusting in God alone. The Exodus story constantly reminded Israel that life is truly a gift from God – it is all grace – and they are never to oppress others or to trust in military might.

 

Now, after God delivers the Israelites from Egypt – God begins to restore shalom by forming a new people shaped – not by greed, violence, and abusive power, but by compassion, mercy, and care for one’s neighbor.

 

To form a shalom people – God gives the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. Our tendency today is to think of these commandments as “restricting our freedom” or even as “oppressive.”

 

But these commandments are to teach the people how to be human again after years of being slaves. These Laws are signposts pointing the Israelites toward the shalom of an ordered, fair, and loving community.

 

These Laws were not restrictive to them – they were life giving.

The Sabbath Commandment – to take a day a week off from work was a constant reminder that they were not in Egypt anymore and that their value as human beings did not come from how many bricks they made for Pharaoh.

 

Sabbath was a reminder that God had delivered them from bondage and that God is a God of mercy and that God loves them and will provide for all of their needs.

 

The Ten Commandments and the many other laws that followed such as – not charging interest, not mistreating foreigners, and not taking advantage of the widows and orphans were all meant to help the children of Israel extend God’s mercy to others as God had been merciful to them.

 

So, the giving of the Law was all part of God’s healing strategy in the world to extend grace to Israel.

 

Then, after Israel settled in the Promised Land they were not to have any human king like the other nations. Their only king was to be God alone. For many years they had Judges who helped unite the tribes and helped them settle their differences.

 

But a time came when Israel was unable to live with God as their only king. They wanted a king like all of the other nations.

 

In First Samuel chapter 8: 7 God says to Samuel about the people’s wish for a king – “they have not rejected you but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me from the day I brought them out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you.”

 

Samuel then warns the children of Israel that if they get a king they will be sorry later.

• He told them that a king will draft their children to be soldiers for a standing army.
• A king will take your sons and daughters to work for him.
• A king will tax your income to support his court officers and the military.
• And a king will make you a slave.

 

What Samuel said would happen certainly did. There were a few good kings but by the time of King Solomon Israel had become an empire oppressing others.

 

It had a standing army, military bases, and was even exporting arms to other nations. Solomon is now the new pharaoh, Jerusalem is the new Egypt, and the Law is forgotten. Israel is no longer practicing shalom.

 

Over time Israel misconstrued God’s blessings as favoritism and entitlement. They become indifferent to the God who saved them and they lost their calling to be a blessing to others.

 

Their unfaithfulness led them into exile and slavery all over again. In the biblical story exile is not only a place. Exile is forgetting God and failing to convert your blessings into blessings for others.

 

But even in exile God does not forget Israel. God raises up prophets to keep alive the Law’s central thrust of shalom – the ideals of peace, justice, compassion for the weak and needy, and accountability to God.

 

In the midst of exile and despair, prophets rose up and proclaimed – not the end – but the beginning of something new.

 

As the people lived in exile the prophets saw in the story of the flood a picture of God’s mercy extended to Israel.

 

Isaiah 54:9-10 says – “This is like the days of Noah to me: just as I swore that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and I will not rebuke you…my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you.”

 

Even in exile God’s response to human sin and evil remained one of patience and radical mercy. God never gave up on the Children of Israel – no matter how far they strayed.

 

At the close of the OT, the Israelites are still searching for shalom. The prophets know that the people need a new exodus – a new liberator.

 

The prophet Isaiah, more than any other prophet, talks about a new kind of ruler emerging. In Isaiah 9:6 he says – “for a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

 

These kinds of promises from the prophets fueled fervent hopes among the people that a Messiah – an Anointed one – would come to liberate them from foreign oppression and usher in a time of shalom.

 

When Jesus burst on the scene in first century Palestine he surprised the people.

 

He surprised them because they were looking for more of a warrior type who would defeat the hated Romans and free them from oppression.

 

But instead, Jesus identified closely with the God of mercy seen throughout the OT and with Isaiah’s suffering servant figure. The scriptures Jesus quoted, the language he spoke, and the images that mattered most to him from the OT identified him as a new shalom-maker.

 

Jesus comes to restore shalom to a fallen and sinful humanity. The Apostle Paul says of Jesus in First Corinthians 15:22 – “For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”

 

Or in Second Corinthians 5:17 Paul writes – “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.”

 

The NT wants us to see that through Jesus a new creation is coming into being. Jesus enters the chaos of our world and brings about a new creation.

 

Jesus heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, and helps the lame walk. Jesus clearly aligns himself with the God of mercy in the OT and the prophets vision of shalom.

 

So, what we learn throughout the OT is that the most powerful force in the universe is still God’s steadfast love and mercy and forgiveness. God’s healing strategy does not change throughout all of history.

 

Through out history God extends mercy over and over again to restore humankind to our created purpose – to live in harmony with God, one another, and all of creation.

 

This all may sound very nice, but I know that many of you still have questions about all the violence in the OT.

Next Sunday I want to look at some of those difficult stories of violence and war in the OT but we must not start with them.

 

We must always start with God’s healing strategy  - which is that – God is merciful and compassionate and refuses to use force or coercion to change us or the world.

 

The good news this morning is that God never gives up on us. God’s love is stronger than our fears. Even when we stray and go into exile – God keeps extending mercy to us.

 

In response to our brokenness – God patiently seeks to heal us and restore us to wholeness.

 

So, even today, through Christ, we can experience God’s shalom in our lives and we can become agents of God’s healing and hope in our world.

 

May we each come to know God’s peace, walk in God’s peace, and learn to extend God’s peace to others.

 

This is God’s healing strategy for the world. Amen.